Scrappy Christmas Trees - Revisited

Christmas has been very quiet this year around here.  Time got away from me and it's now down to the wire for decor, planning and gift shopping.  To bring some holiday crafts to the household - I revisited this project from last year - the scrappy Christmas tree :)  Here's the tutorial from last year:

These small fabric Christmas trees will add some holiday spirit every space. Here's a quick picture tutorial on how to make these trees for yourself - and of course I turned to my 12 Days of Christmas Moda Charm pack.

Materials (for each tree): 

• Various sized fabric squares 2" - 5".  Need about 4-5 squares 
• Strip of fabric -  2" x 8"
• Straw
• Small Play-Doh container - emptied
• hot glue gun
• some tiny 'ornaments' to decorate the tree with - I used a sparkly paper cut out for the top ornament and some beaded string for the tree. 

1. Get your materials ready and hot glue gun heated

2. Cut each fabric square into a free form circle - you could make the edges ruffled like pictured or any other decorative edging of your choosing.  Cut out 4-5 of this circles - each one a little smaller than the previous.

3. Starting from the largest fabric circle cutout, hot glue fabric onto the straw.  I gather the fabric slightly to make it even around the straw.  Leave about 1/3"-1/2" between each piece of fabric.

4. Trim off the straw on the top of your tree - up against the fabric.  Trim off base of the tree - make sure you leave enough straw so that the tree sits nicely in the Play-Doh container.
5. Put some hot glue on the emptied Play Doh container (I use those tiny Play-Doh containers) and wrap the 2" fabric strips around it.  This will be the base of the tree.

6. Put a bunch of hot glue in the center of the Play-Doh container and stick your tree in - the straw part only not the fabric :).
7. Decorate your tree however you like.

And voila - your very own mini (fabric) Christmas tree!

Right now these has been in the possession of my 3 year old - yes these trees are very durable ;)

Sharing this again (for the first time ;)) at these great Linking Parties.

When Life Gives You Scraps...

Make a QUILT! :)  I've been adding more and more napkins to JAQS Studio, so that means more and more scraps in the Studio to work with.  I think I have more than enough to make a whole quilt - yikes!  So I decided to sort through a few to start on my next scrappy quilt project. 



More pictures to come :) - gotta go back to more scrap sorting.

Have a great and productive week!

Scrappy Project: Gift Wrap

As a quilter - I'm always left with odds and ends. Fabrics that are too small to be useful in projects but throwing it out seems like such a waste. So I have another Scrappy Project I like to share - Wrapping Presents: The Scrappy Way :).



This single fabric technique is good for small packages. For this example I'm using a 3"x3" box.

1. Cut fabric 15"x10" for a box 3"x3". Dimensions for other box sizes needs to be about 5x for the width and 3x for the height. You could play around with the dimensions as needed. I like a little extra fabric on all sides so its easier to handle.

2. Place the box on top of the fabric - with the fabric print facing down. Make sure that the box is in middle of the fabric, then take one of the longer edges and fold it over to the top of the box. Then tape this edge in place with some tape. Don't worry about the tape showing because it will be covered up. This is the only tape that will remain in place after the completion of the project.

3. Take the opposite edge and folder it over twice so that it looks like this:

4. Bring the folded edge over to the top of the package and bring it down over the taped edge. Make sure that the folded edge covered the taped edge completely. Then put a piece of tape to hold it in place.

5. Now for the other 2 edges. For both of them follow step 5-8. Turn the package on the side that's not being worked on. Fold down the side that does not open and hold it in place.

6. Fold the open side slightly in to hide the raw edges.

7. Carefully tuck in each of the 2 remaining sides. Make sure that it looks like the picture below with the corners nicely tucked.

8. Now fold the edge from step 5 making sure that all raw edges are nicely tucked away. Use as much tape as needed to keep it from shifting.

9. Repeat steps 5-8 for the opposite side of the package.
10. Stitch the folded sides from step 8 in place using a matching thread. A few stitches should do the trick, just make sure you go through all the layers to keep it secure. Once you feel like you have enough stitches in then remove the tape.

11. Repeat with the other side of the package.

12. Now your package is complete. You could add an additional bow if you want. For this example made a simple bow using 3 strips of fabric.

13. Ta-da! A simple way of using up scrap fabric. I want to play around with the type of fabrics-maybe use numerous types sewn together? Play around with the bows since I just used a very simple one for this package.